The Tale of Blackclaw
by Aristocles
Summary: A story of over 25 chapters, each chapter with 5000 words! This story records the life and times of the Sharptooth from the first movie, from his hatching to his demise. Rated T for violence and for dangerous situations throughout. Please read/review!
1. Chapter 1: The First Year

My earliest memories are hazy. Fuzzy. Indistinct. Although I cannot remember exactly when it was that I first gained consciousness, I do remember the days I spent growing in my egg. It was warm. Cozy. Comfortable. I do not think of it as ever being cramped, confining, or crowded. It was more than my home, it was my world. I could hear things from the outside, usually the roars of my parents, and the heartbeat of my mother. I knew nothing of what these sounds meant, nor that I would one day be able to make them myself one day. When my mother finally laid my egg, I took notice. The sounds changed. Her heart was no longer a sound I could hear, the roars became less noticeable, and newer sounds filtered in through the shell. I could hear the screeching of flyers, the lowing of spiketails, even the footfalls of the great longnecks. Of course, my parents continued to be the sounds I heard the most, although I did not know it at the time. All the while, it continued to be warm, safe, quiet. Although I would go on to learn that as an egg, my existence on this world was by no means guaranteed, I could not tell that at the time. As far as I was concerned inside the shell, nothing could harm me.

Inevitably, all that had to come to an end. One day, my shell ceased to be comfortable. I had grown to the point that I was ready to hatch, and cast off the shell. Things started to change for me in ways my primitive mind could not have previously imagined. Feeling confined for the first time in my existence, I pushed against the shell, against what was previously the limits of my known world. After a time of struggling, the shell began to crack, and the voices of my parents began to pick up. A certain sense began to pick up; something I had never had to deal with before. My eyes were still closed, and my tongue was still in my mouth. I had been able to feel the warmth of the amniotic fluid since my earliest moments, and sounds was an early experience for me as well, but something new was registering, something which changed with my surroundings and when the winds shifted. I would later learn that this new sense was smell. I was smelling the air around me, and the scents from the outside world were wafting into my cracked eggshell.

Pushing my head against the shell, I finally managed to get it out, and for the first time, I could experience the world outside. I opened my eyes for the first time, and not long after smell had been taught to me, I experienced sight! I saw things! At first, it was a real shock, having only experienced the warm darkness of the amnion. Everything was blurry and indistinct. And so bright! Having experienced two new senses for the first time was a real shock to me. My sense of hearing was much clearer now that I could hear the world with only the air separating me from it, without the shell in the way. I didn't know how to handle it. Not realizing what was happening, I let out a feeble scream, a truly pathetic sound for a sharptooth, no matter his age.

"Scrrreeaaaww!"

From there, the rest of my shell quickly began to crumble, what was left of my warm little world literally disintegrated before my eyes. I had hatched, whether I liked it or not. My fate was no longer to be warm or safe, and no longer would I dwell in darkness. For the coming years, my life would be tied to that of my parents… my parents. All they were to me on that day was a pair of blurry colors. My mother was a blurry mess of light green and yellow, while my father was a blur of dark green and white. Still, I had other senses available to me. My nose was keen and my instincts compelled me to smell the air. I soon picked up the scent of my parents. I knew not which was which at first, scent being a new experience for me. Then, my mother approached. I looked up at her with eyes still not clear yet, with a face nowhere near the deadly visage it would one day become. I looked at her, and she looked back, and nuzzled me. I felt a certain kind of warmth that I had not felt in the shell, a warmth that came from inside of me. It was love. My mother loved me and I loved her back. I did not know whether it was instinct, or hormones, or something deeper… or a combination of the three. It was enough for me to know that at last, I was safe, and as long as my family was around, I would be fine in this new, vast world outside of the shell. Everything would be fine. Just fine.

At the time, I didn't know what that sound was. My parents were roaring to each other, and I couldn't understand a word of it. I later learned that they had named me "Blackclaw", that my mother was name "Auria", and my father's name was "Bladefang", although he was mostly called "Blade" for short. They were speaking to each other. Speaking… making sounds that others agreed upon that stood for certain things. With my mother still looking at me, I clearly heard the first words in the outside world, although their meaning was yet unclear to me.

"Look, Blade! It's our child!"

"I see him, Auria. Is it a boy or a girl?"

"Let me check, my love." And with that, my mother moved in close to me. Not knowing what she was looking for, her eyes saw… whatever it was that she was checking for. She also gave me a lick, the second sign of affection in my short life.

"It's a boy, Blade. I'm sure you are very happy to hear it."

My father's tone changed. It seemed to be higher, as if something was right about me. He wanted a son, now he had one.

"Yes! YES! We have a son! I would have loved a daughter too, but, now I have a male in my family who is just like me! I can see it in his eyes, Auria. He's going to be a great hunter! As great as I am! No, better. He will be better than us one day."

"He will be everything we've hoped for, My mate. This is the greatest thing to happen to us. If you are as good a father to him as you've been a mate to me, we have nothing to worry about."

"I wish I could say that was true, my love. I know that you shall be as good a mother as anyone could hope for, but our son will quickly learn how harsh the world is. Even we can't protect him forever."

"I know. It kills me already. Five minutes out of his egg, and we're already talking of danger. Our son… what were we going to name him if it was a boy?"

"Something based on his appearance. Let me take a closer look." With that, my father inspected me. My vision was still blurry, and I had yet to stand up, but he learned what he had to.

"He has dark skin. I think we should call him something that begins with 'black'."

"How about 'Blackclaw', my mate? Your father was named Darkclaw, and it is fitting to name a son after his father, at least in part.

"So be it. Our son is named 'Blackclaw.' His claws are white, though. Ah, well. It's still a good name, Auria. Now, maybe you could help our son get to his feet."

"Sure thing." As she had said this, my vision started to clear, and I saw my mother's head coming at me. Still lying down, I tried to get away as this big… thing approached me. In a moment, I realized that the 'thing' and my mother were one and the same. She had gently grabbed me in her teeth, working with more gentleness than I would later think was possible for a sharp tooth, and she set me on my feet. I could feel the dry ground pressing against me. Looking down, I saw that each foot had three claws on it, plus a fourth one on the side, and that my parents had the same, only many times larger. Looking up, I could see that each of them had a large snout and a mouth full of very sharp teeth, as well as a pink tongue. Placing one foot in front of the other, I attempted to walk, but fell down.

"Aww. Who fell down? Who fell down?"

"Auria, is there any need to coddle him already?"

Ignoring that comment, my mother helped me up and bade me to try again. This time, I managed to take a step, then another, and another, until I could walk on my shaky little legs. Next to the great strides taken by my parents, I couldn't walk very far or very fast, but no sooner than it was ascertained that I could walk did my father pick me up and place me on my mother's head, as she had asked him to. Not at all afraid of this, I looked out at the world around me. As far as my young eyes could see, there were plains. Occasionally, a cluster of trees or a watering hole punctuated the landscape, but on the whole, my world was flat. Flat and full of other creatures in the distance. Many of them. Creatures of all shapes and sizes. Food. All of them were food. If it walked, I could eat it.

That was the first day of my life. The egg was quickly becoming a distant memory. Everything was so new! There were flyers, longnecks, and waterfalls, and rocks, trees, the bright circle, the sky, sky-water, leaves, threehorns, was there ANY end to the things there were to see? And it was all so BIG. How could a sharptooth as small as myself gain any place in this big, big world? Would I remain small forever? Would I somehow become like my parents? Would I grow? If so, how? But these were questions which my mind was unable to answer. Then, my capacities included pointing, roaring in my feeble voice, clinging to my mother, and before long, eating. It was not until the second day of my life that I was introduced to food. My mother and father had walked a good distance on the first day, but then, the sky began to change from light to dark. Was this normal? Did it happen a lot? The bright circle fell, then disappeared. I hoped it would be back. I missed it. This new night circle was hardly a match for the one that went away. My parents stopped walking and began to roar again.

"That's far enough, Auria. The bright circle has fallen, and it is time to rest."

"Good thing too, Blade. My feet are killing me." My mother replied and she lay down. I was still on her head, but she was careful not to drop me as she lay on her stomach. My father was lying on his side not too far away.

"Goodnight, my mate."

"Goodnight, Auria. May you and Blackclaw sleep well."

Sleep. That's what my parents were doing. Closing their eyes and staying very still. For my part, I was full of energy. Sleep was not on my mind. I stayed neat my mother and looked up at the sky. It was now full of little twinkling dots. The night circle was there too, and in time, it moved. I couldn't see its motion, but after looking up there for long enough, I had come to the conclusion that it was going somewhere. Why couldn't it just stay in one place? Eventually, sleep overcame me, and the first day of my life gave way to the second.

I awoke with an odd feeling in my belly that day. It wasn't painful, but it was annoying. Like I should do something. It was hunger. I was hungry. Looking around, I could still see and feel my mother; she was still asleep. Father was gone, though. I could smell his scent lingering in the air, but he was not there right now. Interesting. Where had he gone? Within a few minutes, he had returned, dragging the body of what I later learned to be a female spiketail. I noticed a lot of red stuff coming from the spike tail, and there was even a bit on my father's leg. It was coming from him like it had come from what he was dragging. Was that a bad thing?

"Auria! I have breakfast! Wake up, my dear!"

Whatever my father had said, it made my mother move. She opened her eyes slowly, as if reluctant to get up, but upon smelling the food brought before her, she woke up more fully, stretching her tail and feet, and yawing with a loud roar. Slowly getting up, mother moved over to her mate and nuzzled him, and he returned the gesture. Then they began roaring again.

"Take some of it to the boy, but make sure it is the softest stuff."

"Sure, Blade. Which part do you think will be best?"

"Try the belly. It is usually the softest part."

"I'll get some of- oh! Blade, you've been hurt!"

"A little. It's just a nick. Well, maybe a bit more than that, but I'm in no serious pain. You know me. I've taken worse."

"I'll go on the next hunt. You should try to stay off that foot for-"

"Auria. Come on. You know me. Has a little injury ever slowed me down?"

"Well… no. Alright, fine. You just make sure we get enough to eat. I don't want our child to go hungry because your injury made it too hard for you to catch anything."

"It'll be fine. You should be the one concerned about these things, though. I understand that. You care about the child more than you do me."

"What? I-I… I suppose that is true, Blade. But that doesn't-"

"Good. I _want_ that. I care about him more than you, too. We're parents. We have to do this. Our livelihoods have to come second now." It was a loving gesture on the part of my parents. Not all sharpteeth were this devoted to their offspring. Most cared about the kids until there was a food shortage; then the kids became food if the parent was hungry enough. None of this was known to me at the time, though.

Not long after that, some food was brought to me by my mother. "It's from the spiketail. Go on, don't be afraid to eat it. Go on." I smelled the weird red stuff in front of me. It smelled quite good. Eating it down in a few bites, I noticed that the feeling in my stomach began to fade. I wanted more. My mother gave me more and I ate more and more, and soon, I felt full for the first time; I couldn't eat anymore. My parents, by contrast, devoured the meal in front of them, as if they hadn't eaten in a while. After eating it all, my mother lay down again. She was resting to conserve energy, and because eating a meal of that size took some time to digest. My father stood up, watching over his resting mate and child. He wasn't going to let anything happen to either of us. That was the second day of my life. There was still so much to know. How would I ever learn it all?

By the third day of my life, I was beginning to notice some patterns. The bright circle and the night circle took turns in the sky, and the night circle began to change shape each night. Even more interesting was the wide variety of creatures I saw. Some flew in he air, others lived in the water, and still others walked on the ground like I did. It was truly amazing. But not everything was good. I would be introduced to something else on the third day of my life. Pain.

I was beginning to walk for a longer and longer time, and even at this early point in my life, I could travel alongside my parents for a time. I didn't think that anything would be painful if I put my foot on it, or that anything could hurt me, because I didn't know what pain and injury were. Without knowing what it was, I saw a little black thing in my path. A sharp little stone. Neither of my parents noticed it. When my foot pressed against it, it pressed back, as all things did, but this time, it pressed very hard onto a very small area, causing the skin on the sole of my foot to tear, and for the rock to be embedded into it!

"Screeaah!" I let out a call of as much surprise as it was pain, and I fell onto the ground. The feeling stayed with me. It hurt. It hurt a lot. Immediately, my mother ran over to me and moved her head in close, trying to see what was wrong. Father also reacted.

"Auria! What happened?"

"It looks like he stepped on a rock. I'll get it out." With that, she used her tongue to lick the little rock, and in two licks, she got it out. There was still pain, but it was much lessened. Still not knowing what that was all about, I got up to my feet, but felt a lingering pain in my right foot. Would it ever get better? It would, but not for another day or two. Luckily, my mother let me ride on her head again. That experience was interesting, to say the least. The first pain I had truly felt, but not the last. I suppose there was pain from my hatching, but I didn't really feel it. I never remembered much from these early days, but I remembered that. I also recall that the next several meals brought in were young longnecks, and that my taste for that kind of dinosaur developed as a result.

On the fourth day, I was getting used to a few things. Father did most of the hunting, mother kept me safe, my parents would roar at each other a lot, and the world was flat. This illusion was shattered on the fifth day of my life when I saw-

"Mountains, Auria. The herds have migrated beyond the mountains."

"You mean, they are leaving these plains to go to whatever is on the other side?"

"Yes. I don't know why these plains are drying up. There hasn't been any skywater since before our son hatched!"

"Bladeclaw, our son is only five days old."

"Be that as it may" my father continued, sounding embarrassed "This area isn't going to be good for much in a few months. If the herds are going through the mountains to the other side, we shall have to go there too."

"But… what about little Blackclaw? He can't be expected to go through the mountains at his age!"

"Normally, I would not think about risking it. Still, we don't have much of a choice, Auria. I will not stand by and let him starve out here. The food will only last a few more weeks on this side of the mountains. Then what?"

"Then we go find more food. Okay, fine. We cross the mountains. But we do it tomorrow, Blade. I want us all to be rested and ready to go. Surely there is enough food for us here for one more day?"

"There is indeed. You know the drill, my mate. Rest here and-"

"-and you'll hunt for us." She was already lying down. "It's fine, Blade. I do need to ask you one thing, though."

"Anything, my love."

"How long do you think a trip through those mountains will be?"

My father had paused for a minute, then gave an honest answer.

"I don't really know. We shall have to find a pass through them. If the two of us can pick up the scent of a herd, we can follow it, and hope that they made it through a pass."

"And if they haven't made it?"

"We shall have to find one ourselves."

"Terrific."

"It isn't the best plan, but it's all I have. Do you have anything to suggest?"

"Not really."

"Then we shall go with my plan. It'll be fine, my dear. Just fine."

The next day, just how fine it would be was determined. I survived of course, but my parents would eat very little for the next three days. That's how long it took. Three days of wandering through the mountains, looking for a way though. Three days of following scent trails and footmarks, only to learn that footmarks were rare on the hard rock floor we walked over, or rather, what my parents walked over, as I was carried on my mother's head almost all of the time. The other side of the mountains was like a whole other world. Everything was so green! Instead of plains stretching on as far as the eye could see, there were plants! And the herds, so numerous. So many. Far more than I had seen before. I had to adjust my standards as to what constituted "many." Before, I had seen and smelled hundreds. Before my eyes, I beheld thousands of dinosaurs from up in the mountains. Truly an amazing sight. All that food. Wow.

My parents had the same idea. Dinosaurs meant food. Lots of it. To a pair of hungry sharpteeth, there could be no greater sight.

"Blade, have I ever told you how much I loved you?"

"Many times, dear, many times."

"I'm telling you again. I love you very much."

"Is it your love for me that makes you say this, or the fact that I just led us to enough food to keep us and our child alive for many years?"

"Both, really. I would still love you anyway."

"Enough talk, female. Let's go eat." He meant her no disrespect, and she interpreted it as meaning none. He was just _so_ hungry…

"Yes, let's. Those swimmers look fat and good."

It has not too hard to guess what we that night. I had never seen a dinosaur quite like that before. One with a bill and webbed feet. Who knew that a creature that size could swim? My kind couldn't swim with our scrawny arms. No, but then again, how could that possibly be a worry for me? I couldn't affect me. Nah. No way. I had seen a lot in my first few days out of the egg. A lot more than some of these creatures that we ate. All they did was eat, sleep, and lay eggs, my father would say. Why, given enough food, that's all the leaf eaters would ever do. Eat and eat and eat. And take a long time to finish eating. I never quite understood that. Then again, they never understood us sharpteeth either. Our kind was very fond of sleeping, as well as performing certain actions which I would learn were good for the species as well as the ones who did it, but there was no way for one so young as I to wrap my mind around that. Oh no! That wouldn't be understood for a long, long time.

In the first year, things went well. My parents and I lived in the forest, and we ate freely of the herds, and drank abundantly from the plentiful waters. With no other large sharpteeth around, no one dared to challenge us. The few smaller sharp teeth who dared to live near us quaked in fear as my parents approached. We were safe from competition. In the days, we would eat and rest in the shining of the bright circle, and bathe in its rays while basking on rocks. At night, we would rest together in a group. All during this time, I would grow fairly quickly. I couldn't tell from day to day, but after a few months, my size had increased noticeably. No egg could possibly hold me now! I was going to be a large sharptooth, maybe the largest ever! I was certainly growing enough. My parents were pleased at the way things were going.

"Well, Auria, it's been six months since he hatched. What do you think of our boy now?"

"I think he's better than I dared dream! We're the best parents in the world!"

"Now, let's not get ahead of ourselves, my love. We've only been on the job for six months, so to speak."

"That's right, Blade. I guess I got a bit ahead of myself. Heh."

"Whatever. It's fine. There's nothing more that I could ask out of life."

"Well… Blade. There is something I want."

"Hmm. What could it be? We have our child, plenty of food, we have each other, there's no shortage of water, illness and injury have spared us, and I think we are comfortable most of the time."

"Blackclaw is a gift, Blade. However, I would like to be… gifted a second time."

"You want a second child?"

"And a third. Maybe more, my mate."

"Well, it is about the time of year when we are most… active in that regard."

"I can handle another egg, Blade. Just come with me and…"

Another few months had passed, and my mother had laid another egg. By now, It had been ten months since I had hatched. By all accounts, I was a good young sharp tooth. Now, there was another egg. Fascinating. That's what it looked like on the outside. A newly-laid egg was a rare sight to see, indeed. There was another sharp tooth in there, another one like me, maybe. Was it a boy in that egg, or a girl? I would never know. I would learn, however, that dinosaurs were not of just two kinds, as I had previously thought. There were flatteeth who ate the leaves, and sharpteeth who ate the flatteeth. This was the natural order of things, I had thought. As it turned out, there was at least one other group. A third group. An unnatural one, as far as my young mind knew in those days. These dinosaurs ate eggs. Not meat, not leaves, eggs. What kind of creature would eat such a rare food? How could it hope to survive? I didn't know. All I knew was that after my parents had gone to sleep, one of those creatures stole the egg in the middle of the night, and ate it. My parents saw its footprints and caught its scent, but they never did catch the coward. He stole my mother's egg. He ATE what was to have been my sibling. He KILLED a member of my family. It was a deep loss, especially to my mother, who never forgot it. After that incident, my parents became more protective of me. This was especially stifling to a sharptooth was eager to explore and learn new things, and was just starting to speak.

My first word was spoken at around eight months. It was "meat." That came as quite the surprise to my parents, who thought it would be something like "momma" or "daddy." It was no surprise to me. The word "meat" had come up almost every day for the past nine months of my life, usually in reference to the food that kept me alive. The last two months of my first year were dominated by two events. First, a flock of flyers arrived. They were unlike the usual kind we saw in that they had soft parts on them called "feathers." Not what I thought of when I thought of a flyer.

The real surprise though was the second event; more sharpteeth of my kind. Another family, with a male, female, and child showed up. I wanted to go meet them, but my mother wouldn't hear of it until it could be determined whether or not they were a threat or not. After my father returned from a visit to them with several gashes and an expression of sheer anger, it was determined that they were a threat. My parents worked out a hasty agreement; they would hunt in one area, we would hunt in another. I was not to go out of our place in the forest. Not for a second. This was repeated to me over and over on my first hatchday. By then, I could speak well enough to answer my parents.

"But why can't I go?"

"Because, my son… it isn't safe."

"Mom, why isn't it safe?"

"Because… just… because. You'll understand when you're older."

Indeed I would. How was I to know of competition for limited resources? What _was_ competition? Wasn't there enough of everything for everyone? Couldn't we share what we had? Why did there have to be this fighting? It was a lesson I would only learn in the fullness of time. For now, I had my own concerns, my own life, and now, I was living in "my" territory. A place for my parents and I to call our own, and there was now another place which we could not enter without consequences. Why did it have to be this way? What would happen if the food left one territory and entered the other one? It could happen. What were we to do? And why were we all fighting? Too many questions and no way to answer them. I didn't know much, and I would later learn more than I would like to know, but on my first hatchday, I was determined to get to the bottom of it all.


	2. Chapter 2: The Second year, Part One

After my first hatchday, I remembered a lot more. By then, light, sound, taste and color had lost their novelty to me. Already, even though I was still young, I was walking, talking, and…

"Alright son, watch me. I'm going to show you how to ambush your prey."

…killing.

My father had taken it upon himself to teach me the basics of the hunt. Since I was old enough to take part in it, I spent less time with my mother. She taught me many things as well, usually in the form of stories. She told me tales about the bright circle and the night circle, about how the stars came to be, and why dinosaurs have the qualities that they did, such as how the threehorns got the spikes on their heads, or how flyers got their wings. Dad told me stories too, usually about hunting, fighting and killing. At first, they scared me. Mom didn't like it when he told me about these things, but after a little while, I began to like them. It wasn't so bad, it was just hunting. All sharpteeth would have to hunt and kill; that was just the way of it.

"Blackclaw, are you listening to me?"

"Yes, dad."

"Good. Now, the most important thing to have in a hunt is the element of surprise. Many times, your prey will have spikes, horns, larger size, or superior numbers. If a herd of threehorns organized and fought back, no sharp tooth could stand against them all. The trick is to attack quickly, decisively, and to use fear as a weapon."

"Fear as a weapon? How do I do that?"

"Leafeaters don't fight their food. We do. Fighting for them is a rarity, next to us. Sure, they fight over food and sometimes for mates, but it is certainly not as common as us. Unless we are lucky enough to find something already dead, our meals have to come from a fight. This means that our prey will likely shy from anything which could hurt or kill them, like us. Each individual member of a herd is concerned about his own safety, and as long as they continue to care about their own skin more than the safety of the herd, they will not risk a fight."

"So… if we make them afraid, they won't fight us?"

"Not unless they have to, my boy. The prey that turns and runs is easier to kill, if you can catch it. Most prey you find will want to flee, if it can, but when this is impossible, it will fight. See those swimmers over there?"

I looked over and saw a bunch of swimmers lying around in the water. Some of them were eating the soft, wet vegetation that they so loved, and others were lazing around on their backs and stomachs, soaking in the cool water.

"We're going to attack them?"

"I'll attack, you watch. Remember, going for old, sick, young, and lone prey is a good way to get a meal. There is no point in fighting the stronger ones unless you have to."

"Don't they taste better?"

"… no. An old one tastes just as good as a young one, Blackclaw."

"What about the sick ones? Don't those taste worse?"

"No, not unless they're so sick that they are covered with-"

"And what about the females, dad? Do those taste any different than the males?"

"…"

"Dad?"

"I'm going to attack them son. Just stay where you are. Watch and learn. I can tell you from experience that three things will happen for sure, even if I don't score us some food. First, the lazy herd won't be so lazy in a moment, as they will take to the water to escape me. Second, the faster ones won't hesitate to push past the slower ones, and finally, do you see that one there, with the limp?"

I looked and saw that there was a swimmer who was hobbling on one leg. I couldn't make it out very well, but it looked like a female. An older one.

"That one probably banged its foot on a rock, or was stepped on by a larger creature. In any case, that one will probably be unable to escape me. It will be easy prey. I'll go for it."

"What should I-"

"Stay here! Now watch me!" With that, my father burst out of the trees with a tremendous roar. As he had told me, the swimmers scattered. It was amazing how fast they could move in the water with those webbed feet, they were faster there than on land. Dad set his sights on the limping swimmer and charged, the muddy earth giving way under his footsteps. The swimmer was soon caught in his jaws, and after a few seconds of biting and shaking, the cries of the marsh-dwelling dinosaur ceased. After that, it was very quiet, the silence only broken when my father called out

"Blackclaw! Come here, please!"

I did so, walking over the mud. It felt weird to my feet. Sensations began to mean less to me at this point in my life, as I had fewer and fewer new ones. The smells of earth and water were familiar to me, as was the aroma of blood. So much blood came out of that swimmer's body that it was mixed in the with the wet earth. Still, it smelled good. Fresh. The sort of thing sharpteeth love to smell.

"This is an interesting thing to do on a hatchday, isn't it, son?"

"Well, I guess so. Mom told you to take me hunting only after I had passed my first hatchday, but I don't think she wanted you to do it so soon."

"Ah, what's there to worry about, son? Your mother knows I wouldn't let anything happen to my son. And you did ask for me to take you hunting, isn't that right?"

"Right, dad. I didn't actually _do_ anything. I just watched you kill that hurt swimmer" I had wanted to hunt, and to see my father in action. This was more of a case where I watched him hunt, though. Not quite what I had in mind.

"Well, son, you may have made it to your first hatchday, but that doesn't mean you can take down any prey you want. In fact, I'd imagine it will be two or three hatchdays more before you can start some serious hunting."

My heart sank at that. Two or three more years?! That was two or three times my life! How could I ever wait that long?

"Daaad, how can you say that?"

"Say what? That it will be two or thr- oh. Right. I know you want to hunt dinosaurs. Right now, you should stick to smaller prey, because you are a smaller predator."

"When will I grow up to be as big as you?"

"That will take a long time, son."

"How long will it take?"

"About 18 to 20 more hatchdays, although you'll start getting bigger long before that."

"Can't I make it go faster?"

"No, you can't."

"Why not?"

"Because, Blackclaw, that is just the way of things."

"Why is it like that?"

"Because… oh… just because."

"How did it get like that?"

"I don't know, son. I know that when your mom and I… had you, you hatched out of an egg, like all sharpteeth do, and from there, we have raised you for a year. Now, you have grown quite a bit from the little hatchling we saw for the first time when you came out."

"Who gets to make that decision?" It was the deepest question I had ever asked.

"Who gets to make what?"

"Who makes it like that? Who makes it so that it takes so many hatchdays to grow up? Did you and mom do that?"

"No, my boy, we did not. We made your egg, and we take care of you, but no, we did not make it so that it takes a while to grow up. That was not in our control."

"How is it possible that you and mom can make me, but not choose how to make me?"

"That's a question for another day, son. If you want to know more… eh… go ask your mother."

Little did my dad know how close she was to us.

"What does our boy want to ask me?" And there she was. My mother stepped out of a collection of trees she had been hiding in, watching us.

"Auria! Oh dear, I was just showing the boy how to hunt."

"We discussed this, Bladefang. We agreed that there would be no hunting for Blackclaw until his second hatchday."

"He didn't hunt! He simply watched me. The boy has to be exposed to these things."

"He's only seen one hatchday. He hasn't been out of the egg for a thousand days yet."

"I know, my love. I know. Still, he's not the egg you pined over anymore; Blackclaw is a sharp tooth, and therefore, must learn to hunt. My father let me join him on the hunt before I was even one hatchday old!"

"You hate your father, Blackfang."

"Well, yes, he was cruel and meanspirited, and yelled at me, but that's not the point! Much as I don't like a lot of what he did, my father made me a good hunter."

"Blade, you would have been good even without his harsh lessons."

"I suppose you can teach the boy better than I can?"

"Well… no. My mother was overprotective of me, and my father… you know about him."

"Oh. Right. The crazy one. He wanted you to be dependant on a male for food."

"Right."

"I'm glad you didn't listen to him, Auria."

"In any case, that was a good kill, Blade. I have to admit, I was impressed. Just five minutes ago, this place was filled with swimmers, and now, it is empty. Very empty and quiet, so much so, you could even hear a-"

BURP!!

That had been me. I was young, but even then, I could still let out a loud belch. Had I not overindulged in some of that carcass, I would not have made such a loud sound. My father was a bit put off by that noise, but it got my mother's attention, as she moved over to me.

"Someone's been eating a swimmer leg, hasn't he?" It was amazing to see her maternal instincts kick in. One moment, she was a bit miffed that her mate had gone behind her back to show their firstborn child how to hunt before she thought it was time, and the next, she was all over me.

"Aw, mom, you'll embarrass me in front of dad" I said, laughing as she licked me.

That day ended well. Our territory was rich in prey, and so far, we had no issues with the neighbors. For the next two months, things went well. They stayed in their areas, and we stayed in ours. No close calls, no accidents, no chasing dinosaurs from one territory to the other. Life was good. The problem was, it was not going to stay that way for long. Trouble began on the last day I would ever expect it, on an absolutely beautiful day. The sun was shining, the air was crisp and fresh, and my parents had scored some very easy prey. After a big meal, we suddenly had all day to do whatever we wanted. Mom showed dad something she had found, not too far away from the swimmer's watering hole.

"Warm mud?"

"I found the swimmers lying in it, Blade. I wondered why they spent so much time in it."

"Why do they spend so long there?"

"It's warm."

"What's that got to do with it."

"It feels good."

"Warm mud feels good?" My father was skeptical.

"Yeah. It relaxes the muscles. I tried it for a couple of hours once. Never felt anything quite like it."

"So, you want me to try it, Auria?"

"Only if you want to, Blade. I'm sure its good for you."

"Well, I guess it would be nice, but I'm not sure how…"

My parents went on like that for some time. We knew that this mud pool was slightly close to the edge of our territory, but it was not dangerously near to the edge. While they continued to talk about it, I wandered around the area. They didn't notice that I had gone. This place was new to me, so many interesting plants and flowers; it was only the second time I had been here, and that had been two months ago, so it was still a novel experience. So many interesting smells… I wondered if all this mud and water made the plants look different, or make different kinds of them grow here. Hmm. I would ask mom about that later, she was good with plants, for a sharptooth!

"Aren't you afraid of being attacked while lying in the mud?"

"Who's going to attack a fully-grown sharptooth?" my mother asked him

"Another fully-grown sharptooth" dad replied

"And who would that be? The neighbors aren't very…nice, but they've kept out of here. The only other sharptooth besides them and the boy is you."

"I guess. I don't know. I'm a bit uneasy about it. Sure, it looks like a good way to save energy, but… ah… I just don't like the idea of a large predator relaxing in the mud. It sounds all soft and weak."

"Well, I guess it is rather 'soft', but 'weak'? I'm no weaker for having rested in it."

"It is only something that should be risked when there is an absolute guarantee of safety" my father replied.

"Blade, you know as well as I do that there is no such thing as absolute safety."

"Well… if you want to relax in it, go ahead. Count me out."

My mother sighed in annoyance as she lay down in the mud on her back. She had wanted some time spent relaxing with her mate, but he was refusing to come along. I was still nearby my parents; I could still smell their scent. The smell of a sharptooth was distinctive. I could even tell the difference between a male and a female by the scent. Walking through the grass, I picked up the scent of more creatures. Lizards, flyers, the lingering scent of the long-departed swimmers, and… another sharptooth!

Someone else was in our territory! An unfamiliar scent, a female scent. I hadn't seen anyone, though. Who could it be? Following the scent trail, I wandered farther and farther from my mom and dad until I came to a stade of tall trees and some bush. Soon, I heard rustling. Someone was in those bushes. I prepared to attack, just as I had seen my dad do! I was no longer an egg, I was a sharptooth! I backed up, made sure my footing was good, and I pounced, jumping to the bush as I roared!

Sccrreeahh!

"Ahhh!" a voice cried out as I fell into the bush, biting the plant, and receiving a mouthful of disgusting green vegetation in the process. Ugh! I spit it out and turned to see the one who I had knocked over. She was another sharptooth, with light red skin, yellow eyes and a pale yellow belly. She couldn't have been older than I was, in fact, she was smaller than me, … or was that because she was a female? She was very much afraid of me, and huddled in fear, lying on her back. She was no threat. No harm. I felt bad that I had frightened her like that.

"It's okay. No, really." I told her as she stopped quivering. The killing blow hadn't landed on her, and it was only so long before a sharptooth, young or old, would wonder why not. Yes, she had invaded our territory, but I wouldn't hurt her. "Who are you? I asked, having never seen another of my kind this young."

Looking at me in the eye, she spoke, still shaken. "My name is Argenta. I was chasing some crawlers when you jumped at me. I-I mean nothing bad by coming here." She knew that this was not her territory, but came here anyway. Didn't her parents warm her not to come?

"Argenta? That's a really nice name. I'm Blackclaw. Don't be scared. I'm not gonna hurt you."

She looked at me, incredulous. It was as if she had expected me to eat her. Then again, we were both sharpteeth. It was not a wholly unreasonable conclusion. "My mom told me that if I went too far from our territory, I'd be a pile of dry bones in the morning. Thank you for not eating me, Blackclaw."

What was I to say? I had never been in a situation quite like this before. "You're welcome, Argenta. What were you doing here in the first place?"

"I was exploring. Looking around. I saw some pretty flowers in the distance, but I guess they were too far away for me. Dad says that someday, I'll be able to go anywhere in this valley." Was it true? Was her father thinking of making peace with mine? Could our two families live together without rivalry or competition? Sadly, no.

"What do you mean, Argenta? Is your dad going to stop therivalry between our families?"

"Dad says that sooner or later, he'll do away with your dad, and then we can go anywhere! Isn't that great!" She was younger and even more naïve than I was. Argenta didn't even know what 'do away' meant.

"Uhh… I don't think you know what that means. To 'do away' with someone means to kill them. Your dad says he's gonna kill my dad someday. That would be awful."

"It wasn't told to me like that." Argenta told me, getting slightly defensive about it. Digging her feet into the soft earth, she told me what her parents had taught her. "My mom and dad told me that only the strong can survive in this world, and that anyone who is too weak to hold onto what they have doesn't deserve to keep it."

"What are you saying? That the strong can take whatever they want to?"

"If they can take it, yes." It was a surprisingly cynical view from someone so young and otherwise naïve. I hadn't expected such a young female to take these views, or for that matter, for a female to hold these views at all. At my age, I had know that my father acted one way, and my mother acted another. Dad was more aggressive, strong, and violent, but mom had been kinder, softer, and far more passive, at least around me. She could still raise her voice around dad, that was for sure.

"What about right and wrong? Isn't it wrong to do some things, even if you _can_ do them?"

"What do you mean, Blackclaw?"

"You know… good and bad. Doing nice things for others is good, hurting them is bad. Except for prey, of course."

"I've heard those words used before, but never used like that. I know that food is good and hunger is bad. I know when something feels good or bad, and I know what tastes good or bad. I don't know what you mean by a good or bad 'thing' to do."

In later years, I would learn that this was not an uncommon view for my kind to take; in fact, I was the exception when I held those views. Creatures that lived in herds had to agree on certain things which they considered 'good' and 'bad', but my kind of sharptooth lived in small families or alone. As long as the mates and kids could live together, they were happy. But bonds of love and attraction were not always present in herds of longnecks or threehorns. As such, they would have to agree to some rules that everyone was expected to follow. Of course, there were exceptions and privileges, bad rules, unjust herd leaders, changes to the rules, and all sorts of other confusing things added to the mix.

The most confusing of these by far was when the herd leaders got it into their heads to claim that the sun or the moon gave them the right to rule, or that the leaders were somehow 'better' than the rest of the herd. Stronger maybe, but not inherently better. Even the strongest longneck would no longer be so strong if his back were to be broken by a falling boulder.

"Well, Argenta, your dad better watch out if he comes near my dad. My dad would kill him instead!"

"Nuh-uh! My dad is the biggest sharptooth that ever lived!"

"I'll bet he tells you that a lot."

"Everyday! It's gotta be true."

"Sounds like he's trying real hard to convince himself of it."

"…I'll be my mom can beat your mom!" Now Argenta was asking for it.

"No way! My mom is the toughest female I've ever known!"

"How many female sharpteeth have you known, Blackclaw?"

"Including you… two."

"That isn't very many, Claw. Can I call you that? It's easier to say."

"Sure thing. Where was I? Oh yeah, my mom can beat your mom!"

"Are you still going on about this?"

"Well, yeah. We're not doing anything else, are we?"

"I'm bored." Moaned Argenta, as she lay down on her back. We should do something.

"Like what?" I asked. I didn't know what sort of games she liked to play, but I was eager to find out.

"How about we chase some fliers around? They usually land at this time of day to get some food. We just need to watch out for the older ones, though. At least, the older males."

"Older flyer males?"

"Yeah, the ones with big beaks and claws on their hands and feet. Even if you've never seen one before, you'll recognize them quickly. They're much larger than the females."

"Ah yes, I think I know what you mean. My dad's bigger than my mom. Still, I'll bet my mom could beat your dad-"

"Claw? Could we drop that?"

"Uh... Sure. Sorry." I tended to go on a lot as a yearling.

"Wanna go chase the flyers now?"

"Yeah! Let's see them flap their skinny wings!" The thought delighted me. I could imagine them now, squawking and fluttering, and flying into each other in sheer terror as a pair of predators chased them to and fro.

Argenta got up and stretched with a loud sigh. Then she started walking to the north, to the very edge of my family's territory. I followed her up to a rock which was the limit of where my parents allowed me to go, and then I told Argenta that…

"… I can't go."

"What? Why not? Don't you wanna chase those flyers around?"

"Yeah, but, dad told me not to leave our territory. He says that bad things will happen to me if I do."

"Aw, come on! I left my territory and nothing bad happened. What's there to be afraid of?"

"Your parents, for one."

"Mom is having a nap and dad is on the other side of our territory, away from the flyers. No one will notice us."

"But-"

Argenta ran past the rock and deeper into her territory. I stayed in my part of the valley, feet planted firmly in the soil. I was determined not to move, but…

"Are you coming or not?" Argenta's voice beckoned me. I couldn't see her, but I could still hear her. Lifting one foot onto her family's turf, I set it down. Nothing happened. The soil didn't burn me, nothing leaped out of the woods to eat me, and after a minute of walking, I caught up to my new friend.

"See? Nothing bad! And we'll be back at our homes before the bright circle leaves the sky! Come on! This way!"

As I ran off with Argenta, there wasn't a single worry in my mind. Everything was going just fine. Just fine. Little did I know how bad this day was to become…


	3. Chapter 3: The Second Year, Part Two

Argenta ran through the woods, fast on her feet as always. Even faster than I was. She was excited; for that matter, so was I. In all my life I had never had the chance to frighten some fliers. That was about to change. Better yet, I had the chance to do it with a friend, a female at that.

"Come on, Claw! We're almost there!" Her voice was soft, kind, and utterly disarming. Did all females sound so good and sweet? My mother's voice was soft as well, but it reflected an inner strength and gave me a sense of protection. Argenta was different, like a fragile flower that needed protection from someone stronger than her, and that made her all the more precious. Such thoughts were rather premature for one such as I. I was still very young. The matters of exactly what males and females were supposed to do with each other was still very much beyond my years. Totally. For now, she was my friend and nothing more.

At length, the two of us stopped in the dense undergrowth, way beyond my parent's territory. Had I been thinking more clearly, I wouldn't have been there at all.

"Why are we going through the bushes, Argenta?"

"We need to stay hidden for now, Claw. The flyers will see us coming if we don't hide."

Ugh. Thornbushes. I hated thorns. They always managed to get lodged in the most annoying places. I don't know what it was about them. I always seemed to get them stuck in my feet, my hands, even my tail. Argenta moved right through them, avoiding almost every point and spike on the plants. I could never figure out how she did it. For my part, I followed her as fast as I could, trying not to lose sight of the red-skinned youngling who had befriended me. I took a step through a particularly rough patch of thorns, and found myself pushing against some rather hard plant matter. Argenta had bounded right over this obstacle, but I found it too hard. Heh. I then naively thought that if it was the female way to get around a problem, it was the way of a male to go right through it! Even then I harbored such notions as that; of such arbitrary distinctions between individuals based solely on their reproductive role.

I gave it no thought. Backing up, I aimed my head at the thorn patch and charged! This was a mistake.

"There we are! Those flappy fliers won't know what hit! Isn't that right, Claw? Claw? Where are you?"

"I'm tangled up in here! Can you get me out, please!" Argenta came over to the sound of my voice, only to find a rather foolish yearling male sharptooth hanging upside-down, suspended by thorny vines, with several of the aforementioned thorns embedded in his flesh.

"Oh my goodness! Claw, did you jump into the-"

"It attacked me first! Could you just get me down from here?!"

I don't know if it was shock, awe, or just plain surprise that illuminated her face, but Argenta's eyes were opened wider than I thought possible. After about a moment, she regained her composure and began looking for a way to get me down.

"Why are you looking around for? Can't you see I'm stuck here? There are sharp things poking me all over, I can hardly move, and I can't feel my-"

CHOMP! SNAP!

"Ahhhh!!"

THUD!!

After about a moment it became clear what had just happened. Argenta had found the vine that the others were all tangled up in, and had bitten through it in one swift motion, thus freeing me. I didn't know it at the time, but this would not be the last time I would be saved by a female.

"Claw? Are you alright? Did you hurt yourself?!"

I had fallen on my head when she let me down, but it wasn't very far, and the earth was soft. "I'll be fine, Argenta. Really."

"You didn't hurt yourself, and this little accident didn't make the flyers leave either. Good. Now lie still, Claw."

"What?! Why should I-OW!" No sooner than I had stood up did I realize I was standing on thorns embedded into myself, both underfoot, and in various places that I couldn't even reach.

"That's why. Now are you going to let me help you or not?" I lay down, listening to Argenta, as she quickly used her hands and teeth to pull out every one of over a dozen sharp thorns from me. The whole thing took less than 5 minutes.

"There. I think I got the last of them out. Stand up, Claw. See how that feels." I did so, and tested the ground several times, hoping that as I pushed against the ground, I would not be pushing anything deeper into my skin. Nothing. Argenta had been very through.

"You were amazing, Argenta. Really. How's you know to fix things that fast?"

"My family lives in an area with a lot of thorn bushes. Every day my parents step on something, and they sometimes ask me to get them out. I really don't mind doing it; those thorns are bad."

"I'll say. Very painful." It was all I _could_ say. For once, she and I were in full agreement on this point. Pain was bad. Sure, I still thought of good and bad in terms of being moral and immoral, but in this case, helping one get out of pain was a good thing in both my and Argenta's way of looking at the world.

"Now them, shall we go to those fliers?" She was just as eager now as she had been when she first asked me. Truth was, so was I. That little incident with the bush didn't dampen my spirits. Oh no! This was a good day! I was growing up! I had met a new friend! The world was such a good place, filled with all sorts of adventure and excitement! How could I possibly think that anything could ruin such a wonderful time? No, this day was mine! It was even better because I had someone to share it with.

Ducking down, the two of us moved over to the very edges of the bushes we were hiding in, where we could see a couple dozen fliers gathered in a clearing in the woods. There were several groups of fliers in front of us, some with adult males, some with mothers and kids. I noticed that there didn't seem to be any father fliers present. How odd.

Now, we Sharpteeth were known for their senses of smell and vision more than our hearing, but neither of us had any trouble listening in on their conversations. Turning my head to the right, I saw several fliers, headed by an adult female who was colored a deep blue, and her children, the males being brown, the females being colored in a similar shade of blue as their mother. They looked funny, with their skinny wings. These fliers were not fully grown, yet they were hardly hatchlings. I had caught them at a very awkward age. Teenage fliers.

"Now children, gather round. Momma's gonna get you some fine food. Just wait here. Pterano, since you are the oldest, I'm putting you in charge. Make sure that nothing happens to your siblings. I'm counting on you."

"Yes mother, you can count on me!" The largest juvenile had the strangest accent, like he was not from where the others were. Interesting. He clearly had an inflated sense of self-importance and an ego as big as a longneck. I remember thinking just how much I would enjoy deflating that pompous, puffed up flyer. Oh yes, nothing was as sweet as seeing the mighty fall; it would be even sweeter because I would be the one to knock him down.

"Heheh. See that one, Argenta. The windbag? I'm gonna get him. I'm gonna chase him down and scare him so much he'll never be that boastful again."

"Sometimes, it can be hard to keep flyers scared, Claw. They flap around, they run away, they screech and squawk, and sometimes they don't come out of a tree for a whole day, but after a while, they will usually get back to whatever they were doing as if it never happened. Then, you scare them all over again. That's how I do it, Claw. Claw?" I was no longer next to Argenta, though. By then, I had gone off to put a scare into the silly little flyers, running off like an idiot, roaring my little roar in my yearling's voice.

"Screaarrrraarrr!"

To my ears, I might as well have been my father, but the flyers were not so much frightened as they were perplexed by this odd, silly little sharptooth who took off in pursuit of a flyer to scare. Then they saw my teeth, and the most common expression ever to come from the mouths of the leaf eaters I ever saw was uttered by the panicky flyers.

"SHARPTOOTH!!"

As always, the reaction was instantaneous. Flyers flipping and flapping,, mothers trying to get their children in the air, younglings plying the wind with their frail little wings, and panic about a sharptooth of my kind prevailing all over. Opening my mouth wide, I bit at the air, frightening them further.

CHOMP! CHOMP! CHOMP!

Racing for the loud-mouth, my ears picked up some of the frantic conversations. Several of the younger flyers were begging the one in charge to deliver them from the seemingly unstoppable force that was me.

"Pterano! He's heading right for us! Do something!"

"Brother! I'm scared! He's gonna eat us!"

"Run, my siblings, run! Take to the air and fly! I'll save us!"

The flyer and I couldn't converse, but I could tell what was going on. I had seen similar events with my dad. The leaf-eaters always fled the approach of a sharptooth, save for the brave, the foolish, and the very strong. A fully-grown flyer male might have been a challenge for me, and one nearing adulthood could still be dangerous, but this gawky, gangly, awkward juvenile was not much taller than I was, not as strong, and most importantly, lacked a means of defending himself. No, that last part was not quite true; the claws on his hands and especially his feet were sharp enough to cut me, but my fangs and claws were more than match for his defenses any day.

Argenta was behind me the whole time; I could smell her, running around and snapping her jaws, having a good time, and keeping the flyers in the air. Even without turning my head, I could hear the sound of wings beating against the yielding air, of Argenta's footfalls as they fell onto the soft earth, and of her own little roar, which was even softer and more pathetic than mine, but her voice sounded sweet and melodic, even when she was using it to scare the crap out of the fliers. At least, it sounded sweet to me.

I decided to take matters into my own hands. The situation was already a scene of havoc; flyers scrambling to the air, two young sharpteeth running around taking bites at them, and now, I went to take it a step further. Running at the flyer who wouldn't shut up, I leapt into the air, hoping to take a bite out of him…

But then…

ROOOOOAAARRR!!!!

An even louder roar shook the earth, causing the remaining flyers to scatter completely, and even cause Argenta and I to lose our balance. I fell onto my stomach as the footfalls of a large predator drew near. A sharptooth. A _very_ big male. For a moment, I thought it was my dad, but looking up, my eyes widened as I realized that this gray-colored beast was no one I had ever seen before. Argenta looked at him too, and what she said next was unexpected at the time, but I should have know. I had been a fool.

"Dad? You're here earlier than I thought." Argenta spoke to him in our tongue, in a tone that was harsher and tougher than she had used around me; it was as if she was a different Sharptooth.

"Rrrr. I came as soon as I heard the flyers. You did a good job bringing him here!" He spoke to Argenta in the same way my dad roared at our prey. There was no sign of caring or parental love… but my mind wasn't focused on that. Argenta had led me here on his orders. She had betrayed me!

He looked over at his daughter, then at me. At first, I was afraid he would eat me; I'm sure he would have liked to, but no. I was the only child of his rival, the only other large male sharptooth in the region, my father. He had use for me as a hostage. I wasn't going to stick around to find out what he wanted. Turning running towards my family's territory as fast as I could, Argenta's dad didn't even to give chase. I should have been more careful. I ran into what felt like a warm rock, and not for the first time today, I fell to the ground. I didn't have time to look up as I was grabbed by a pair of fangs, and held in an enormous mouth, hanging roughly by my loose skin. Argenta and her dad quickly caught up with me as I realized that this was her mom.

"Well, my mate, we seem to have done it. I told you Argenta could sneak in there. I didn't think she would lure him out after just one try, but it seems that my rival doesn't take care to educate his son about the real world." The gigantic female couldn't respond as she held me in her mouth, pressing down just hard enough to draw a tickle of blood. Deciding to fix this, she dropped me to the ground, and before I could recover, her massive left foot pressed down on me, just hard enough to hold me without breaking my bones. Had she shifted her weight, I would have been crushed in an instant. Regardless, she was now free to speak, and did so.

"What do you want to do with this one? You told me that we had to hold him hostage, but I don't see what difference it will make." Her voice was especially disturbing to me. She had a feminine tone, but it was tinged with a certain ruthlessness that I never could have imagined coming from my own mom.

"I told you the plan. First, we go to the edge of his territory with the boy, then we call him out. Bladefang will come over to meet us, and probably bring his mate in tow. Either way, we make him and Auria a deal. His son is to be exchanged for her. She goes into my territory as a "hostage", we kill her together, then when we are ready, we kill Bladefang together. If it works, both of them will be dead in under a week, and we can have this whole area to ourselves."

I squirmed under the female Sharptooth. There was no way I could get up. "Auria! Help! Do something!" To my surprise, Auria didn't just say something, she came over to me. Looking up at her mom and dad first, she then turned to me, looking like her mother in expression, sounding like her father in tone.

"Sorry, Claw. You were really nice and all, and there was a time when I would've been like you. Dad beat it out me, though. In this world, only the strong survive. It was fun to chase those flyers, and fun to talk to someone my age, but fun won't keep my belly full, it won't keep me safe, and it won't keep me on dad's good side."

Trying to get out from under the claws which held me down, I struggled against Argenta's mom, only to find her pressing harder, squeezing the air out of my lungs. Luckily, she let up a bit after a moment, when it seemed the fight had gone out of me. Argenta continued her little speech, as if trying to justify her actions to me.

"You know how it works, Claw. I am a small animal, only kept fed and safe by my parents. They tell me that I will be expected to pay them back and help them out when I am old enough to hunt, and when I am fully grown, I am to leave them and not come back to their hunting grounds, or else. Until I am old enough to defend myself, I have to do as my father tells me. Mom says she wanted me because… never mind. You'll be dead soon enough."

That was it. I had been lured out of the safety of my territory by a young female sharptooth who had lied to me about being a friend. Words would not form in my mouth. Thoughts would not form in my head. All I could do was roar in anger.

"roooaaarr! reeeaaarrr! screeeaah!"

Neither Argenta nor her parents laughed at me. They didn't comment on my roaring, nor did they laugh at how pathetic it sounded. I was beneath their notice. I was a non-entity to them, save for my status as the offspring of the other adult male and female sharptooth couple that lived in this valley. Even their daughter didn't care. Luckily, someone cared.

"Reeeaaarr! raar! ROOOOAAARRRR!!!!" That last one was not my voice, but it was familiar to me…

That last roar got their attention as my parents burst through the trees! They had followed by scent and now were here to rescue me. My father saw what was happening and stopped short of attacking my captors, but my mother would not stop until her child was safe. Running faster than I had ever seen her run, she rammed into Argenta's mom with her head and knocked her down, grabbed me, and ran back behind my father before Argenta's dad could react. She set me down, but said nothing. Both of my parents had turned to face their rivals. This conflict was not supposed to happen, but what they did to me had crossed a line.

I will never forget what happened next… before they day was out, there would be blood on my hands. Sharptooth blood. My dad was going to kill Argenta's dad, and my mom was going to kill Argenta's mom… and I was going to _kill_ the one who betrayed me…


End file.
